A Chinese company claimed it’s working on a reusable spaceplane similar to the U.S. Air Force’s secretive X-37B. Unlike the X-37B, which launches into orbit atop a Falcon rocket, the Chinese vehicle would blast off in mid-flight from under the wing of a large “mothership” aircraft. It’s unclear how... Read more

The Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker was never planned for export when it was originally developed, unlike its lighter cousin, the MiG-29. However, ever since being approved for export it has been one of the most popular fighters in the Asian region. The first customer for the Su-27 was China, which... Read more

It’s been said that groupthink is a bad thing, that creative tension is a good thing and that appointing a “devil’s advocate” represents the best way to counteract the former while generating the latter. With any luck the give-and-take of debate yields better insights into ambient circumstances and how to manage them. To assure there is some... Read more

As Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull prepares to visit the United States in mid-February 2018, media down under report that near the top of his agenda with U.S. president Donald Trump are plans for the two countries to counter a project most Americans have heard very little about. China’s... Read more

China has built some islands in the South China Sea. Can it protect them? During World War II Japan found that control of islands offered some strategic advantages, but not enough to force the United States to reduce each island individually. Moreover, over time the islands became a strategic... Read more

The Chinese People’s Liberation Army Air Force has declared its Chengdu J-20 fifth-generation stealth fighter operational. With the J-20 formally attaining initial operational capability, China becomes the only the second nation-state to have developed an operational stealth aircraft after the United States. Russia, which is currently developing the Sukhoi... Read more

In the 1980s, China’s small arms were largely inferior to the United States and Russia. The PLA was mostly armed with the Type 56 assault rifle, a clone of the original AK-47, and the Type 56 carbine, a clone of the Soviet SKS. There was an abortive attempt to... Read more

The world has managed to make it through most of 2017 without the return of cataclysmic, great power conflict. In some parts of the world — most notably Syria — tensions have declined significantly. In others, already difficult situations have grown even more tense. Here are five crises that could lead... Read more

So now China is overtly threatening cross-strait war should U.S. Navy vessels tarry at seaports in Taiwan. Congress and the Trump administration contemplate such port calls in the text of the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. Pres. Donald Trump has just signed the act into law. Afterward, diplomat Li Kexin announced that... Read more

Images of China’s J-31 stealth fighter are in high demand given the nature of the technology and rumors about its future. It was odd, then, that the prototype fifth-generation fighter jet recently appeared in photos posing next to an SUV. Turns out, the bizarre photographs are not an advertisement... Read more